Senescent (a Divergent alternate ending)
by mjloves2write
Summary: Set after Allegiant, when Tris never died, Tris and Tobias rejoin and decide to have a future together; this includes marriage, kids, and training the new generation with their friends - the RIGHT way - to be warriors.
1. Prologue

I can already feel the death serum getting to me, but I resist as hard as I can. I am a divergent after all, and I know that I can do this. When I hear the key click into the lock and the door start to slide open, I slowly slide my hand down my jeans until I grope with my gun which I hide behind my back. And it is David who enters, and he holds out a gun. Instead of fighting, however, I talk to him. "Did you love her?" I say. "All those years she was sending you correspondence . . . the reason you never wanted her to stay there . . . the reason you told her you couldn't read her updates anymore, after she married my father . . ." David sits still, like a statue, like a man of stone. "I did," he says. "But that time is past."

That must be why he welcomed me into his circle of trust, why he gave me so many opportunities. Because I am a piece of her, wearing her hair and speaking with her voice. Because he has spent his life grasping at her and coming up with nothing. "My mother wasn't a fool," I say. "She just understood something you didn't. That it's not sacrifice if it's someone else's life you're giving away, it's just evil." I back up another step and say, "She taught me all about real sacrifice. That it should be done from love, not misplaced disgust for another person's genetics. That it should be done from necessity, not without exhausting all other options. That it should be done for people who need your strength because they don't have enough of their own. That's why I need to stop you from 'sacrificing' all those people and their memories. Why I need to rid the world of you once and for all."

I take out my gun and fire it three times, while looking away. Moving on, I punch in the numbers and hit the button to activate the memory serum. The death serum made it hard to focus but I see people celebrating my victory. I see Caleb, Matthew and many other faces that I can't quite identify. That's because the next second I faint from the serum and the grief.


	2. Chapter 2

Tobias

My part in this mission went well. Zeke, Shauna, and Hana got inoculated, as well as Christina's family. However, when the memory serum never went off in Chicago, we knew we succeeded. (Supposedly, Caleb exploded the Weapons Lab security and turned on memory serum in the Bureau.) I never ended up giving the memory serum to Evelyn or Marcus, but I did give it to Peter...sort of. He thinks - well right now, he is so discombobulated, I'm not sure he can think - I gave him memory serum, as requested, but I lied and gave him a mixture of inoculant and serum. That will cloud his brain for the next 24 hours. As he would say: Once a Stiff, always a Stiff.

I'm not even that sure why I acted selfless towards him, when he deserves to forget the world after things he has done in his past. Something about the boy I saw in the fringe, after the Bureau erased his memory of his father died; forgetting your sorrow is worse than living with it, and it is cowardice. I may not believe in factions anymore, but I still believe in Dauntless' motto. Therefore, I think that Peter's request to forget his sins is bullshit. So even if right now he doesn't remember his own name, tomorrow he will remember stabbing Edward with a butterknife. On the way back to the compound to see Tris, Caleb, and everybody else I'm worried sick about Tris. I need to see her, to know she is okay. If everything went as planned, Caleb is dead by now. (And I can't lie to say that I am sorry for him.)

The van arrives back in the compound and I walk out. But that walk turns into a jog. And then before I can even realize it, I'm in a full out sprint. _Where am I even going?_ I ask myself, _Who cares. I just need to know:_ _is Tris okay?_ I first run to the erudite compound, but there I see everyone else (including Caleb- I wonder why he isn't dead?) _except_ Tris. I couldn't focus that much, but I remember a few things they told me. Something about how she hacked into the Weapons Lab instead of Caleb. _I have to get to her._ I find myself heading towards our old dorms in candor next because that was the last place Tris and I...hung out…last before the government crashed. When I enter the first door, I am not greeted by anyone. I get frantic and run to the next bedroom, but she isn't there. I then quickly smash open all of the doors in the other bedrooms, and she still isn't in any of them. My last thought is the room we were in when… Anyway, I kick open the door and there she is, sitting at a table set for two with a candle in the middle. "You awful, terrible girl!" I say at her half laughing, but mostly relieved. "I missed you," she says quietly. I run up to her and I hug her, tighter than ever. On the spot she starts crying.

"Tris, babe. No don't cry," She sobs, "Today, I nearly died twice, then killed a man, and then passed out," "I know, it was hard. And I'm so sorry, but I'm so glad you are okay," I whisper as her eyes begin to dry up and she stops crying. "I wanted to make a little something special for us to celebrate our victory." she says. Damn, I just can't get enough of her. "Also since when do you call me _babe_?" "Since now I guess. I just can't call you _Tris_ anymore, now that we are...you know...serious," What am I even saying? She put me under her spell and I am sure of it. "Okay, I accept." She says smiling, leaning on my chest. Then she looks up at me again. Those pure, bright, perfect eyes staring into mine. Sure I would have preferred to kiss her right then and there, but it didn't feel like the right time for that. We eat.

"What was it like around death serum?" I asked her, curiously, "You'd be surprised to know that it actually doesn't feel like death. Well not right away, at least. It smells like smoke and spice, but when you inhale it…" She went on describing how it felt to be on the verge of dying, but to be honest, it feels like that almost every day in this crazy world. One minute, your father is a dictator. The next minute, you are stuck in a faction that teaches you not to die by training you like you're dying. The next minute, you are one of the trainers! Then the world is under a simulation, except you. And then they want to kill you, so you run away, to figure out your whole life is an experiment!

 _I feel like I'm having a mini panic attack inside my mind._ I can't help think. My heart was pumping too much blood into my veins, making my head throb, which made it hard to look at the light. _I just want to close my eyes and make everything stop!_ But instead I open them and look at my girl in front of me. When she is done talking, I can't help but thank her. "Thank you. Thank you for everything," "Pardon?" "I'm sorry. Just listening to what happened to you today is making me think about what is going on in our life. Every day is a threat to our survival. And for once I wish we could just have a regular relationship but we don't have any time for that and I just want to be with you more and-" "Hey, hey," Tris is talking in such a sincere voice, "Hey. Look at me. Look at me right in the eyes," I do, "I know things have been hard, but they can only get better from here. I'm scared too, trust me, but from now on, we are a team, and I won't leave you ever again," My heart rate slows down. "And for the whole relationship-thing, we have all the time in the world now. Well, at least until morning," she says with a grin.

"Oh I love you so much," I say, "I love you more," These are things that dauntless never say, but I need to get the idea of factions out of my head. It is hard to stop relating them to everything in my life, but I need to learn to stop. "I don't know why I'm saying this, but I feel like I need peace serum," "Oh my gosh don't even start! Remember when they overdosed me and I was so loopy? I was all over you?" "Well, I didn't mind that part," "Then why did you lock me in my room all day?" We laugh, "Anyway, I have something better than peace serum. Well, something more easy to get!"

She brings out a version of the fizzy alcohol drink. Staring into each other's eyes, I take a deep breath. _The woman I love more than anything is right in front of me._ "Tobias, I don't know if you know, but I got dessert for us, too..." She whispers into my ear. I lean in for a kiss and her lips press against mine. All 0f the troubles I had throughout the day were forgotten, and it was like Tris and I were the only two people in the whole world. She pulls away for a second and I carry her unceremoniously to the couch. She sits up but I push her back with my hands. Our lips join again and our fantasy resumes. We put so much passion into the kiss it is as if it will be the last thing we do.

Even though my whole life may be a mess, everything stops with Tris. But everything stops without her too. I feel that lust for her lips against mine when we are apart for too long. I find myself becoming a better person, yet a worst person in these romantic moments. I can't control myself sometimes, and I act younger than I am. And it happened again that night.


	3. Chapter 3

Tris

This time when he tries to lift up my shirt, I don't make him stop; in return, I get to take his shirt off. His tattoos are the same, handsome and all, but he added a new one. Under all of the faction symbols, right above his tailbone. It is a circle, completely shaded-in black, except for three outlines of crows. I touch my shoulder, where _my_ crows are. "Why did you get my tattoo?" I ask. He responds so meaningfully, "Because you mean so much to me. You are now forever part of me," "But why is it next to all of the factions? Why not put it on your arm or something?" Now he is touching my shoulder too. "These are all what I want to be: brave, selfless, honest, smart and kind. But I also want to be with _you_ , even if I don't show it often. These five factions make me divergent, but _you do too_ , Tris," I can't help but smile. "Oh, so we are back to _Tris_ now?" He laughs.

Later that night, after - to be honest - kissing, we snuggle up in a blanket and decide to play a game of Candor. (Similar to Dare, except you have to say the truth.) I start, and ask her, "Have you ever slept someone else besides me?" "No," she answers truthfully. "Okay, phew! I got nervous for a second," I joke, "Your turn," "Okay...have you ever been on a date with someone because your friend told you to?" "Yes, so many times right after initiation. Zeke was such a player. Always needed me to go on double dates, even if they were girls I hated," She was surprised. "Wow, so shallow!" "Ha ha, very funny. Okay. My turn...did you ever do something really bad when you were a little Stiff?"

"Yes, actually! Sometimes, really early in the morning, I would sneak in and look at myself in the mirror," I dramatically gasp, "I just couldn't get enough of it! I'm just so beautiful," "Yes you are," "If you could give memory serum to anyone in Chicago, who would it be?" Hmmm...tough one actually. "I think Caleb," She looks surprised. "Why?" "Because he just doesn't deserve to know you," "Aww, thanks. I thought you would say Marcus or Evelyn," "Well, actually, today I got some memory serum and brought it with me when I was inoculating everyone," She nodded along, "I was going to either give it to Marcus or Evelyn. But I ended up giving it to Peter," She looked so surprised. "That took an unexpected turn!" I guess when you think about it, giving Peter memory serum does sound like a big deal.

"Well, you'd never believe it, but he asked me to give it to him," "Wait why? I'm so confused," "He felt really bad about being such an asshole, so he wanted to start over. But I gave him a mixture of memory serum and inoculant that ended up making him forget his memory only temporarily," "Oh. Well that was nice of you. Why did you do that? We hate Peter," "I don't think it was nice of me. I'm not generally a nice guy. That must be why I like you! 'Cause you're not nice either!" He mocks, reminding me of when we were in Amity, and I was under peace serum. He continues, "No, it wasn't nice because he was being a coward to run away from his problems. So tomorrow morning, when it wears off, he will remember all of the things wrong with him and have to deal with it,"

"Is it hard for you?" I ask, "Just forgetting everything that we've spent our whole life learning about? Our whole adolescence following?" He looked confused. "I'm not sure if you realize it, but you just completely quoted the code of conduct for dauntless. And now, our whole faction system is fall apart! With the head of Allegiant and head of Factionless working together?" He clenches his jaw, drifting back to reality involving his mother. "I'm so sorry Tobias that this is all happening, but you can talk to me. Is it hard to let go?"

"It's weird, Tris. I feel like I have, emotionally, grasped the situation. But, physically, I can't help but be dauntless," "You don't have to be dauntless," I interrupt, "You can be brave and selfless, and not dauntless and abnegation. We need to start to signify the differences between the characteristics of factions, and just characteristics," I put my arm around his neck and start playing with his hair softly. "I guess I feel that being dauntless is what I'm best at. Everyone is good at being brave," "Look at me, Tobias. You are amazing at so many more things than just throwing knives. And not everyone is good at being brave. I mean, look at Caleb. Or Peter," We laugh, "You are extraordinary," And as the last word slips out of my mouth, he kisses me. I can't help but cry; when he asks me what is wrong, I respond, "You are perfect."

That night, I dream of my initiation without Tobias. Lauren was the one who told us initiates to jump, but wasn't as harsh as Eric was, so I felt comfortable. I still jumped first, but Eric was holding the net and slapped me when I reached for his hand to help me come down. Then, Zeke was my trainer but fell in love with Christina, who wasn't my friend. Zeke never realized that I needed help with my fighting, and I became really hurt in training. I barely made the cut for the first part of training. Don't even get me started on the second part of orientation: simulations. When Zeke saw that I was different than everyone else, he brought me to Lauren who brought me to Eric who brought me to Max who brought me to Jeanine and well... that was when she still wanted to kill all divergents. So she killed me. I woke up as soon as the gunshot, breathing heavy, sweat dripping down my face. Where was Tobias?

"Are you okay?" he asked, just walking in. I rubbed my face with both hands. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Just a nightmare," "What about?" "Life without you," "Seriously?" "Seriously. Zeke trained me," "Wow that must have ended well," "Yeah! Why are you up so early?" "Firstly, I don't think it is considered early anymore. You slept in really late, actually," I smile, "It is hard to wake up when you don't want to night to end," "And secondly, I needed to pick this up," Finally, I realized that Tobias got a haircut, was in a suit, and was really...short? _No, no, Tris,_ I thought, _He is on a knee. Wait..._ Everything came into focus. He was proposing to me. He took out a small, velvet box and I took in a sharp breath. "Beatrice Prior," I laugh, "Okay, you can use that name just this time," He smiles and continues, "Beatrice Prior, the second you fell into my arms - literally - I sensed something in you. You were just like me, a naive Stiff. But that wasn't our only connection. You are so dedicated and beautiful and strong and loyal and...I'm sorry," Was he tearing up? So sincere. "I'm trying to propose, but I'm having trouble with the words.

"Point is, you are different. Not just divergent, or genetically pure, you are special. I let you in my apartment, I let you in my fear landscape, I let you in my heart. And I don't ever want to let you go. So, _babe_ ," he grins, "...will you marry me?" I let the tear roll down my cheek, look at the silver diamond glittering in the sunlight, and I think about how this will change my life. Waking up next to him every day? Having kids? Growing old together? (I can't help but let the Amity side of me take over and just imagine...) He clears his throat. "Uh, Tris? It is okay. Is this too sudden? Because I understand if you want to wait or-" "Shut up, of course the answer is yes," And with that, I dive into his arms and I hold on. And we will love each other throughout senescence.


End file.
